Process for preserving cane juice



Patented July 5, 1 927.

NITED STAT-ES PATENT OFFICE.

PROCESS FOR PRESERVING CANE JUICE.

Ito Drawing. original application filed January 24, 1924, Serial No.688,307. Divided and this application filed July 30, 1926. Serial No.126,089.

This invention relates to yeast culture and more particularly to thepreservation of sugar juice used in growing yeast as disclosed in mypending application Serial No. 688,307, filed January 24:, 1924, andthis case is a division of said application.

In the production of maximum quantlties of yeast from sugar cane juice,it will be found necessary to add additional nitrogen and phosphate, inany form, organic or inorganic, which is known to be assimilablebyyeast, 7

In order to increase the amount of available nitrogen in the cane juiceitself, recourse may be had to souring, wherein the sugary solutioncontaining unavailable nitrogenous bodies is inoculated with one of thespecies of lactic acid producing bacilli, and incubated for one or moredays at a temperature of about C. This is of added importance if itbecomes necessary to keep the juice in storage before using, since thesouring process prevents the growth of other organisms.

If it is desired to keep the juice in storage for some days, or evenseveral weeks, it becomes necessary to keep the juice from spoiling; Inthis contingency, the souring is continued until 100 cc. of this juicecontains the titratable equivalent of between 5 and 10 cc. of normalalkali. When concentra tions of acid as high as this are reached, theformation of new acid by the lactic bacteria is very slow and finallyceases altogether, unless some neutralizing substance is added to thesouring mash, which can be done here but only if the preparation oflactic acid per se is desired, in which case chalk, or similar materialis used.

For purposes of preserving the juice, it is necessary to allow the acidformation to proceed until it stops automatically and still maintain thetemperature at 55 to- C. This combination of high acid concentration andhigh temperature is an efiicient method of preventing infection andspoilage of the product. However, on dilution of this soured materialwith water, nothin detrimental to yeast growth is found in 1t. Theformation of a small amount of floculent deposit occurs on heating thefresh juice, which makes any addition of solid matter as a resting placefor the lactic acid bacteria unnecessary.

Heretofore the keeping of thecane juice has been considered animpossibility but with the method outlined above the cane juice can bekept against spoilage for a considerable length of time.

While I have described in detail the preferred practice of my process,it is to be understood that the details of procedure may be widelyvaried Without departing from the spirit of this invention or the scopeof the subjoined claims.

I claim: I

1. The step in the process of preserving cane juice for subsequent usein growing yeast which comprises keeping the juice at a constanttemperature of 55 C. in the presence of lactic acid forming bacilli.

2. The process of preserving sugar cane juice for subsequent use ingrowing yeast which comprises inoculating the material with lactic acidforming micro-organisms, and keeping the acidifying liquid at atemperature of substantially 55 C.

3. The process of preserving sugar cane juice for subsequent use ingrowing yeast which comprises the souring of the juice, adding chalkthereto, and keeping the liquid at a temperature of substantially 55 C.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature.

ARNOLD K. BALLS.

